In memoriam Ettore Beghi, 1947–2022

After a long disease, Ettore Beghi passed away in October 2022. Born in 1947, he received both his MD degree and his specialization in neurology at the University of Milan. He became consultant neurologist at the Monza Hospital, where he conducted one of the most advanced Italian epilepsy clinics. In parallel, he founded and directed for more than 30 years the Laboratory of Neuroepidemiology at the Mario Negri of Pharmacological Research in Milan.

In 1974–1975 he spent 18 months at the Neuroepidemiology Section of Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN, under the mentorship of Leonard T. Kurland. In that period, he authored several epidemiological papers, including a key study on the relationship between flu vaccine and Guillain-Barré syndrome.

This experience was instrumental in the subsequent development of his research and the advancement of neuroepidemiology. Indeed, he has been the mentor of generations of neuroepidemiologists in Italy and in Europe. In 1982 he was one of the founders of the Neuroepidemiology Section of the Italian Neurological Association (SIN), now Italian Association of Neuroepidemiology (NEP), which he chaired for 6 years.

He was the founder and the first coordinator of the Italian ALS Study group of the Italian Neurological Association and promoted pivotal studies in the field of ALS, in particular related to the descriptive and analytic epidemiology of the disease and clinical trials. During the 1990s he organized several RCTs on ALS, including the branched-chain amino acids and beta-interferon trials. He was a member of the European Network for the Cure of ALS (ENCALS) and of the European ALS Registers organization (EURALS), as the founder of the Lombardy ALS Register (SLALOM).

He authored or coauthored more than 500 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and more than 200 chapters in neurology books.

We remember him as a rigorous methodologist and tireless organizer. As a person he was kind, open to discussion, sometimes subtly ironic but never offensive, and always ready for advice to everybody working with him. All we remember is his keen interventions and questions during the discussion of scientific presentations in scientific meetings. Ettore was a respected member of the Board of the ALS FTD Journal, for which he was a frequent, rigorous and fair reviewer. He was a brilliant editor of others’ works, as well as a kindly but critical mentor of those younger colleagues.

His cultural interests were not limited to neurology. For example, he had strong interest for American native culture and, more in general, for history. We remember when, on occasion of the AAN annual meeting in Denver, having asked us to go with him to see the South Platte river, he passionately narrated the complicated and often sad stories of the native tribes living in Colorado area.

The ALS and the neuroepidemiology community will miss him deeply as a great scholar and a loyal friend.